Liv Games have recently developed an action packed 2D side-scrolling war game that promises and looks to be one of the gems in the app store. Legendary Wars has a bit of every action game and it all comes together fluidly.

Gameplay

The underlying storyline is the classic bad guys trying to take over the world, and you have to use different races and unite them in harmony as you attempt to win the war against evil. The controls are simple and involve tapping to select the character and tapping on the next spot to move the character. There are three lanes in which you can move your character, and also when defending your castle your army will automatically defend (check automatic for enemy targeting option). You can also control an entire race of your allies by tapping on ally of that race, this allows for smart attacking and defending and makes for more strategy options. Once you control an entire race, you have different options like charging and retreating.

The selections of races in Legendary Wars are expansive and they include knights, dwarves, unicorns, golems, miners, wizards, elves and more. Each of the races have their own unique strengths and weaknesses; knights are slow but have a good melee attack, elves are quick and have weak attacks, unicorns are strong and fast but cost a lot to summon etc. There are also enemies like zombies, wolfs, vampires, trolls, and gargoyles. As you can imagine with so many races and enemy types, there is a lot to learn and lots of strategy involved. Fortunately for gamers, Legendary Wars makes it all very fun to do all this.

Now, to summon these allies into battle you need gemstones and you get gemstones by using dwarves to mine. You have to be very careful as not have too much of one ally or to keep waiting for more and more gemstones. As the game progresses, you will find it much easier to find the perfect balance.

Legendary Wars also allows you to level up and equip different and more powerful armors for your allies. There are 3 tiers for each ally and for each tier you can equip a different armor. In the tier you can increase the stats of your allies like defense, health, attack, critical hit %, and special ability boost. You can get moonstones either by IAP or by continuously battling, these moonstones will allow you to buy the different armor. You can also upgrade your castle?s defenses to last longer during a battle. Special abilities for each of your allies allow you to unlock a special move that requires your energy bar to fill up. The energy bar is located next to the health bar of the castle and once it fills up a star button on the bottom-right corner will light up. Select it and watch your ally use its special ability.

There are many different game modes and the first and foremost is campaign mode. Here you will span many different environments and unlock many different characters. There are over 50 levels and will take up a lot of your time as you attempt to master the perfect strategy against your opponents. The other modes include endless defense, side-scrolling and survival. For the endless defense mode, you simply have to defend your castle against waves of enemies and the game ends when your castle is destroyed. For the side-scrolling mode, you control a hero and you tap on different lanes and battle to reach the end of a level. For the survival mode, you are given an army to defend yourself against waves of enemies. There is no Game Center support currently, but the developer says it?s on its way soon.

Graphics & Sound

The graphics for Legendary Wars are standard water-color style that fit all pieces together. The game has some unique character and enemy designs and the user interface is well thought out. There are plenty of beautiful environments and eye-popping parallax scrolling. Unfortunately, the graphics do not support retina display though the developer did say he will support it in a future update.

Legendary Wars has a variety of soundtracks and each of set the mood well. The music is simple great and it?s fun to listen. You can also play your iPod music while playing the game.

Conclusion

Legendary Wars is tough game to master but if you put enough time to it, the game is incredibly fun and has plenty of content to keep you busy for a long time. The controls work effectively, the graphics are good and there is a lot of strategy involved. This game has all the necessary elements of a good side-scrolling defense game and makes it better with a lot more content and gameplay.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Graphics: - 4 - Good graphics and bunch of different environments, not very unique and does not support retina display.Sound: - 5 - Great music and option to play own music.Controls: - 5 - Controls are effective and work well.Gameplay: - 4.5 - Lots of replay value, different game modes, and plenty of content. It is a tough game to master and no leader board integration.

Playing Hints and Tips:

Make sure whenever you have money or moonstones to spend them effectively to level up and purchase armor for your ally. Make sure you have at least 2 dwarves to mine whenever you can, it is very important that you have enough gemstones. Also, do not always wait for the strongest allies; mix up you allies according to their strengths and weaknesses.